Dreams can come true, but not always

MEP’s woes in gaining global support.

European Voice

9/7/11, 9:09 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 9:51 PM CET

Entre Nous last week (1-7 September) reported that, according to cables leaked to WikiLeaks, US diplomats wrote that Nirj Deva, the vice-president of the European Parliament’s development committee, “has been a close contact of the USEU [embassy] since the previous parliamentary term”. The date of the cable was 2004.

Cables from 2006 released this week show that Deva failed to secure US backing for his bid to become secretary-general of the UN General Assembly. He also seems to have struggled to keep the limited support he had. The cables recount how Fiji wrote a letter asking for his name to be added to the list of candidates and then, when asked for clarification, said the earlier letter “was not intended for the purpose of an official nomination by the government of Fiji but was rather meant to support his candidature”.

Deva seems to have been under-prepared for a global political campaign.